Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Announcing Never Grow Up's "Frozen" Blog Party!!

Hey everyone!  Sorry you haven't heard from me all weekend.  Things have been busy and I've had a lot of computer issues.  I'm still fighting with my desktop daily, but I'm going ahead with the blog party as planned.

Also, a huge thank you to the three of you who nominated me for the Liebster Award.  I'm hoping to get to those questions soon, but I wanted to go ahead with my plans for the week while I had the chance! :)

I'm very excited to announce that today is the official beginning of Never Grow Up's Frozen-themed blog party!!  We're starting today in celebration of Frozen's release on Blu-ray and DVD, which I will be buying later this afternoon. :D  I have a great week planned, including giveaways, questions to fill out, and posts in keeping with the theme! :)

For starters, I thought I'd share a mini tutorial of my fan art I drew for my header:

I started with some Frozen Valentines and a very rough sketch...  

 ...then started filling in the details, slowly but surely.  

I was thrilled with how Elsa turned out! :D 

 Here she is next to the Valentine I used as a reference.

I erased my temporary features from my rough sketch of Anna and then started again.

I was pretty pleased with how she turned out, too.

I changed the position of her pupils because I wanted her looking at Elsa in my drawing.  Anna's head angle was a rather difficult angle to replicate.  I definitely found it more challenging than Elsa.

Here's the finished sketch...

...and then a closer look.

As always, I did the "backwards test" (looking at the picture backwards against the light).  They still looked pretty good, so I knew I hadn't done too badly with my proportions. ;)

I recently purchased a set of art pens at Michael's which I have been thoroughly enjoying. :)  Here's the one I used to trace Anna and Elsa.

Here they are, all traced and ready to be cleaned up with an eraser.

I was a bit disappointed with Anna's mouth and nose, and I also ended up giving her an extra chin line.  My problem was I doubted myself and changed her look while I was tracing (not usually an advisable thing to do).  I knew I'd have to work that into the shading somehow so I wouldn't make her look too odd. :}

And here they are with all of the pencil erased.

A closer look again.

 I ended up using a combination of colored pencil and markers this time around, basically because I didn't have the right skin tones for the girls in my markers.

 I also liked using the colored pencils to give Elsa's eye makeup and facial features a softer look. 

Her hair was a bit tricky, but I finally decided on using a tan-colored marker and a blue colored pencil.  I think it worked out just right. :)

 Even after adding color, I was still disappointed with the way Anna turned out.  Between my flub on her chin and messing up her lips, she just didn't come out quite the way I had hoped.  I almost wish I'd kept her as a pencil sketch...I liked her much better before I traced her.  Oh well, live and learn. ;)  This is only the second time I've drawn Anna, so I'll figure her out eventually. ;)


It was really fun playing around on Ribbet.com with all of the special effects and such.  I'm quite pleased with the way the header turned out, and I can't wait to try out more Frozen fan art! ;)

And while we're on the subject of art, I have to head out to my art class, but stay tuned for more fun!  I'll be announcing the giveaways and putting up party questions within the next day or so, and I will also have a blog button for the party up as soon as I possibly can.

Talk to all of you again soon! :)

As always, here's a copy of my previous header. ;)

14 comments:

BlackKitty said...

You could have not mentioned the double chin, to me there's honestly no difference because my astigmatism always gives me quintuples of outlines of everything :( But I can Photoshop it out for your header if it bothers you. I love how the drawing turned out and I'm excited to hear you are planning a party on the blog!

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Thanks for the offer, Black Kitty. Part of art is learning and being content with what you've accomplished, so I think I'll leave it. I'm sorry to hear about your astigmatism. That must make things quite challenging for you. :(

I'm glad you enjoyed the drawing, and I'm glad you're as excited as I am about the party. :D

BlackKitty said...

That's a good philosophy, accepting the imperfection and moving on :) I just wanted to add that we usually use a mirror for checking the drawing because it works even if we don't draw on something transparent.

Gracie said...

I am so excited for the Blog Party!


What markers did you use?

:D

Gracie said...

Oh I just noticed!You are almost to 900,000 Page views!
Congratulations!!

Nina said...

Yay! I love Frozen soooo much! And your drawing was amazing!

Ruby Danderfluff said...

Beautiful! The shading on Anna's chin turned out so well afterall, and I love all the detail (especially on the girls' dresses!) I've probably said this before, but the evolution of the artwork is so fun to watch. =)

I've tagged you for the Sunflower Award! I know you're a very busy lady, so lease feel free to participate or not however you wish to. More information here:

http://rubydanderfluff.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-sunflower-blogger-award-another-tag.html

Can't wait for the party! =D

Juliet XD said...

Wow, I love it! I've done Elsa a few times, and Anna face, but to put the two together must have taken a while :) I think Elsa is a little easier to draw, her hair is so fun XD

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Thank you so much, everyone! It was so fun to come back home and find all of your lovely comments waiting for me. :)

BlackKitty, it's a philosophy I TRY to keep in mind as I draw, but I must confess there are times I'm too frustrated to have such a calm, balanced view of things. ;)

Ah yes, I've used a mirror before, too. I'm usually closer to a light source than a mirror when I draw, so that's why I tend to do it that way. A mirror is a great tool for checking drawings too, though. :)

I'm excited for the party too, Gracie (and thanks for the congrats, too...I'm thrilled about all the pageviews). :)

I used three sets of markers for this projects. First were my trusty Pentel Markers, the brand I've used since I was three years old. ;) You can see them on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Pentel-Color-Assorted-Colors-S360-36/dp/B001E6F108/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1395185076&sr=8-2&keywords=pentel+markers

I also used a huge set of colored Sharpies I got for Christmas, and then I used a set of Sargent Art washable "Multicultural Broad Tip Markers" from Hobby Lobby.

Thanks, Nina! :)

Thanks, Ruby. I know I always enjoy seeing the process of a drawing unfold, so I figured there must be others like me out there. ;)

Thanks for the tag...I'll do my best to participate, but it might have to wait until after the blog party. :} We'll see!

Thanks, Juliet. :) I agree, Elsa is easier to draw for me as well. And yes, I LOVED doing her hair. :D

Jen said...

Whee, Frozen blog party! I am in a Frozen mindset right now - Amazon's habit of delivering pre-orders on Release Day meant that we got to watch it after dinner tonight. (I was also lucky enough to jump on the Disney Store website before they sold out of dolls...again!)

Love the art! And I love that you use the "backwards test" too - I find so many flaws in my work that way!

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Lol, we got our movie at Walmart today, so the girls and I watched it after dinner, too. ;)

I happened to be on the Disney Store website and managed to get Anna for Middle Gal, but the Elsas for Oldest Gal and Little Gal were sold out by the time I tried to check out. :( When I first got on the site, I thought, "Oh good, the dolls are back! I'll have to let everyone know!" But I'm almost glad I didn't, because by the time everyone would have read the post, the dolls were all sold out again. Just crazy!! I've never seen a line sell out so fast at Disney Store before! We're still hoping we'll be able to find two Elsas somewhere. So glad you got your dolls! Now I get to look forward to awesome Frozen Pullip custom pics on your blog, right? ;)

Thanks for your compliments on my art...coming from you, that means a lot. :) Lol, I don't think I've ever drawn a picture without doing the backwards test...it works every time! ;)

Jen said...

The Pie could barely eat dinner in her excitement - cheeky girl asked to be excused from the table with barely anything eaten!

I had been checking the Disney Store website every day - sometimes more than once a day as the release date drew near! - hoping to find the dolls. I ended up giving my pre-Christmas-impulse-buy Anna to the Pie, and managed to snag another Anna and two Elsas (one for each of us!). I was tempted by the coronation set, but it was already gone by the time I stopped waffling. Probably for the best!

As for Pullip customs...to be honest, it might be a while! Costumes are eating my fun-budget money, alas!

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Well, I'm just as bad as Pie...we actually ate dinner in front of the TV. :} Part of that is coordinating our time between homework, dinner, and movie before bedtime. ;)

I'm so glad you were able to get the dolls you did. I love the coronation set too, but had originally planned on buying it when it went on clearance. :} Somehow, I don't think that's happening! ;)

That's okay about the Pullip customs...there's only so much we can do at a time, right? ;)

Katt said...

I wanted to say good job! And also thanks to this blog I've discovered ribbet.com and I love to edit on there. It's a great website for those who want to do edits but can't get Photoshop. I use it to make character edits for this tangled fanfiction story I came up with, and it helps me get my ideas in order, and can create pictures based off of scenes. I just wanted to say thanks, and I love your drawing style.